Hydrocarbon motor



June 9, 1925.

H. P. DOOLITTLE HYDROCARBON MOTOR Filed March 13, 1920 Patented June 9 1925.

' UNITED STATES" PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY r. noom'r'rrn, or DETROIT, MICHIGAN, assrenoa TO PACKARD MOTOR can COMPANY, or DETROIT, MICHIGAN, A conronnrrou or MICHIGAN.

' HYDROCARBON MOTOR.

Application filed March 13, 1920. Serial No. 365,450

T aZZ whom z't concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY P. Doomr'rnn,

a citizen of the United States, and resident ture to the motor, said carburetor comprisof Detroit, Wayne County, State of Michiing shown at the upper end of the cylinder. 12 1s a carburetor for supply a suitable mixing air inlets 13 and 14., a gasoline nozzle 5 gan, have invented certain new and useful arranged in a Venturi air tube 16. and

Improvements in Hydrocarbon Motors, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to hydrocarbon I110- tors, and particularly to the mixture heating means therefor.

The salient object of the present inven tion is to provide means for automatically controlling the operation of the mixture heating means.

iVi-th the lower grades of fuel used today in hydrocarbon motors, various means for heating'the fuelhave been devised. One of these. devices is a combustion heater, which so heats the fuel, particularly on nearly closed throttle, that the less volatile parts of it become vaporized and formed into a dry gas. This is particularly desirable when the motor is cold, .as when starting, and even when the motor is idling, because in that case the motor is not warm enough to itself supply-the heat required for vaporization of th e liquid fuel. But it is found that insome cases it is desirable to cut out the heater when the temperature of the mot'or has reached a rather high point, because at ,that ti e the motor itself will supply suflicient heat to effect vaporization to the degree necessary for complete combustion.

ings, which form a part of this specification .Thus the present invention contemplates the use of an extraneous heater for supplying heat to the fuel when the motor itself is not operating hot enough to properly vaporize the fuel, but when the motor itself is operating to supply suflicient heat for vaporizing, the extraneous heating means is automatically put out of action.

- Other objects and advantages of theinve'ntion will appear from the, following description taken in connection with the drawand in which- 1 1figure 1 is a. part elevation and part sectional View of a hydrocarbonmotor embodying the invention and Figure 2 is a detail sectional view of the thermostat unit.

Referring to the drawings, 10 represents a cylinder or cylinder block of a hydrocarbon motor, one of the spark plugs 11 bea float chamber 17 arranged tosupply the nozzle 15 at the desired level..

The upper part of the carburetor 12 is in the form of .a conduit .18 which connectswhich may be arranged at anysuitable point in the conduit between the carburetor and the motor, but as shown it is in the conduit 18 above referred to.

' The intake conduit 19 is jacketed on both of its arms, a water jacket 25 surrounding the arm 20,. and a jacket or combustion chamber 26 surrounding a part of the. arm 21. The water jacket 25 is supplied with water from the motor cylinders as'by the pipes 21 and28 so thatthe water in the jacket 25 will correspond in temperatureto that of' the cylinder jackets.

' The jacket. or combustion chamber 26 has an outlet 29 into the intake conduit 0f the motor above the throttle valve 2e so that the chamber is subject to the suction of the motor. Of course this suction is greater when the throttle valve is closed, or partly closed, than it is when the'valve is w1de open, and this suction draws into the combustion chamber a mixture of gasoline and air suitable for igniting therein. This mixture comes through a pipe 30 from a small carburetor 31 mounted upon the float chamber 17 of the carburetor 12 above referred 'to.

auxiliary carburetor 31 may be of any suit able construction which will adapt it to sup v ply a mixture to the combustion chamber 26. In that chamber the mixture is ignited by a spark plug 32 operated byj suitable elec;

trical means, such as that diagrammatically" illustrated in the drawing. That means com prises a coil 33: a secondary tgt co From the above it will be seen that as the motor is started mixture will be supplied to it through the intake conduit 19 and mixture will be supplied from the auxiliary carburetor 31 to the combustion chamber 26 where it will be ignited by the spark plug 32. The burnt gas from-this mixture, in addition to heating the arm 21 of the conduit 19 through the walls of the latter, will pass directly into the conduit 19 through the opening 29 so that it will thereby come in direct contact with the incoming gases and heat them to such a degree that they are practically inthefform of a dry gas when they enterthe cylinders.

For the purpose of controlling the combustion heater so that when the motor reaches a predetermined heat the spark plug for the heater may be-cut off, a thermostat 43 is provided in the water jacket 25, and when the said jacket is connected with the jacket of theimotor, the Water thereinis at substantially the same temperature as that of the motor water jacket.

The thermostat 43 is in the form of a unit having a cap 44 which may be threaded into an opening in the wall of the jacket and a compressible cylinder 45 secured to the cap. The compressible part of the thermostat unit is connected by a rod 46 to the contact 41 above referred to so that the expansion of the thermostat by the heat of the water surrounding it will break the connection between the contacts and 41, as shown in Figure 2. This wilLcanse a stoppage of'the current passing to the spark plug 32, thereby cutting out the operation of the combustion he ten.

As soon as the temperature of the water. in the jacket 25 is sufiiciently reduced, the thermostat 43 will operate to close the contacts 40 and 41, which will thereby immediately'start the combustion heater in operationagain.

A. specific embodiment of the invention has been described in detail and will be specifically claimed, but it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the exact details of construction shown, as it will be apparent that changes may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire'to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a hydrocarbon motor, the combination with a, water jacketed intake conduit, of a combustion heater for the intake gases, and means depending upon the temperature ofthe jacket water for controlling the operation of the combustion heater.

2., In a hydrocarbon motor, the combination with a water jacketed intake conduit, of; a combustion heater for the intake gases, and a thermostat arranged in the water jacket for controlling the operation of the combustion heater.

3.. In a hydrocarbon motor, the combination with an intake conduit having a water jacket connected with the water jacket of the "-motor, of a 'combustion heater for the intake, gases arranged to discharge into the intake conduit beyond the water jacket thereof, and means depending upon the temperature of the water-in the jacket of said intake conduit for controlling the operation of the combustion heater.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

HENRY P. DOOLITTLE. 

